And altho the IRS didnt rise to challenge to respond w/ dox for the sake of sunshine week. We did get an initial reply dated March 21 (3days after sunshine week ended with added lag for snail mail delivery). There wasnt much other than boilerplate to see here, aside from the fact it made past the GA clearinghouse offices it was sent too and got transferred to what may be the federal branch in MD. So we kept mum to see how the final reply would play out.

What twist? The NO U reason stated is not quite what we expected & had been somewhat prepared for - "Materials originated with the IRS".

Instead they enacted ye olde "Personal return information is not disclosed" excuse (that has also been given before) but conveniently dropped the "personal" bit and expanded the scope to claim closing agreements are equivalent to exempt return info.

So phase 2 paper raid followup begins now. We have 35 days to file a fairly simple administrative appeal in the form of another letter. Except we need to redo some homework and find an angle we that can troll further to debunk/dispute their assertion the closing agreement dox = third party return info.

Paging all available researchfags, taxfags & lawfags to the round table ITT, we need yer swords. The relevant bits to unravel & reravel into some kind of leg to stand on for forcing the issue to next level are these bits:

...exempt in their entirety from disclosure under FOIA exemption (b)(3) in conjunction with Internal Revenue Code sections 6103(a) and (b)(2)(D).

Suggestions wanted on possible ^^admin appeal strategy... even if its just to be a dick and blow some halfway decent sounding hot air so as to let someone higher up the food chain know the dox are wanted and that we think the IRS is gay for not giving them up.

We also ask that further harpooning efforts (phone calls, letter writings, etc) be kept on standby for time being. The time to commence the serious rukus raising and congress critter trolling is AFTER the admin appeal is denied, and we still need time to work out next steps strategy and get it filed before the deadline.

(Note: Invitation for helping find a good spiel to appeal this under extends to all the researchfags on this forum as well )

Ideas on how to appeal against the notion that "closing agreements are equivalent to exempt return info" might be gleaned from what happened in the Sklar case in terms of what likely excuses they might use. i.e. trying to preempt them and avoid the same mistakes. Tikk would be the one to ask on that.